Thunderbolts #43
Thunderbolts #43
Title: "Chasing Your Own Tail!”
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Story: Kurt Busiek
Penciller: Mark Bagely
Inker: Greg Adams
Colors: Joe Rosas
Editor: Tom Brevoort
CONTINUED FROM AVENGERS VOL. 3 #32
Black Widow
thinks to herself how it took her six hours to climb Mount
Charteris. She recalls the hour that it took find an access vent
through the holographic camouflage. She says that it isn’t
bad for second rate technology. She says that now she can get
what she came for and get out. She follows the ducts into the
private quarters. She sees a room devoid of personality and
deducts that it is Moonstone’s. Black Widow sees a camera
and crushes it.
Techno senses the camera’s destruction. He wonders if Moonstone has come back. He doesn’t really want to interrupt his experiments, but performs an internal sweep of the place.
Black Widow hides as she hears Charlie and Songbird walking down the isle. Charlie says that if they haven’t put half as much effort into finding Hallie’s killer as they have looking for Moonstone. Songbird says that she agrees, but says that Hawkeye is right that if Moonstone is mentally unbalanced that she can’t be left. Widow gets down as they walk by. She wonders if Jolt’s death was a random shooting or someone targeting Jolt. An invisible Scourge stands next to Natasha. She thinks that she feels him there, but doesn’t see anything. She climbs in the ceiling and finds where she is looking for, the main lab. She sees Clint inside, “whoever the new MACH-2 is”, and she recognizes Ogre from Factor-3 though she has to strain to do so. Natasha listens in. She hears that they are searching for a missing Moonstone. She hears that Clint is angry and used to having the best equipment for such emergencies. Widow thinks back to the time when she was in love with Clint. Abe says that if that wasn’t bad enough that they can’t even track Atlas. Ogre says that his ion emissions are being dampened, and that he stepped on his communicator in Symkaria. Clint says that he is still more worried about Karla. He says that Erik is in trouble, but that as an ionic being he is almost indestructible.
Karla stands in her old costume from when she first became Moonstone. She looks down at the Fantastic Four’s home by the docks.
Ogre says that there is still so much that they don’t know about her powers. He says that she is an insufferably private woman. Abe asks Clint if she said anything when they spoke. Clint says that she doesn’t talk about herself much. He says that they mostly talk about his frustration with everything falling apart. Techno thinks to himself that he could share some things with them, but that he can’t do so without revealing himself. He wonders if he isn’t waiting to be discovered. Black Widow thinks about how personal Clint takes failure. She thinks about how her plan was to sneak in and out, but decides to help out. Widow drops in from the ceiling. Clint says that they didn’t do anything. Widow hugs him and says that she came because she needed the Thunderbolts’ help. Clint says that they will do whatever they can. Ogre asks if anyone isn’t concerned that she got by their defenses. Abe says, “Dude, she’s the Black Widow!” Widow tells Clint that the situation with Atlas is more complicated than he thinks. She tells him about the coin, the run-in with the Maggia. She tells him about their encounter with Cyclone. Hawkeye guesses that she got what they were looking for, but that he got away. Widow asks how he knew. Clint says that they are old pros at watching him escape. She says that the information she learned was what the Maggia was looking for… information on the original ion experiments of Baron Heinrich Zemo. Ogre says that makes sense since it was the process that gave Wonder Man and Erik Josten their ionic powers. Clint says that she must have come to them since Helmut Zemo was once part of the Thunderbolts. She says that they would be the most likely to have information. Abe says, “Anything like that was lost when Zemo blew up Four Freedoms Plaza after… uhm.. they were revealed to be… who we were… are… were.” He thinks to himself that he is being stupid and that she is going to figure it out. Ogre says that information would be kept in Zemo’s Central American castle. Clint asks if Ogre knows where it is. Ogre says that he could figure it out based on what Erik Josten told him about his experiences as a mercenary for Heinrich Zemo combined with they learned from the V-Battalion about Citizen V and Captain America’s attack on Zemo’s base. Techno thinks to himself that he can also find it since he is the one that built it. Widow says that they can’t find Atlas or Moonstone, but that they can find a place that the Avengers, SHIELD, and even the CSA can’t find. Abe says that Ogre found dozens of spots of low-level ionic energy while looking for Erik. Ogre says to give him an hour to pinpoint the location and prep the T-Bird. Clint says that he knows Ogre has been busy, but asks if he has something for him. Ogre says that it is in his room. Clint asks Abe if he will tell Songbird and Charcoal what is up.
Charcoal slams the wall and asks if there is anything else they can do to stop them from looking for Hallie’s killer. He asks if maybe Dr. Doom has a hangnail.
Scourge stands invisible looking at Techno. He thinks to himself that he could take him out now, but that he discovered things that conflicts with his mission parameters. He says that he is supposed to kill them in a certain order, but that if he kill Techno that the three lives he is connected to will also die.
Widow sits on Clint’s bed while he
changes in the other room. She says that she is proud of him and
that he has chosen a hard road. Clint says that there have been a
lot of potholes lately, but that it is the best thing that he has
ever done in his life. Widow says that there is someone in his
life. She says that Songbird is a bit young for him, but that she
seems like a good person. Clint says that it isn’t her.
Widow says that Jolt is a teenager and dead. She says that MACH-2
and Atlas don’t seem his type. Widow sees Hawkeye in his new
uniform. He has a Thunderbolts symbol for a belt buckle. She says
that if it wasn’t bad enough him “falling in love with
that harridan” that his outfit makes it clear where his
sympathies now lie. 
Clint asks what
better time to show his new look off than on a mission with the
Avengers. He asks what a harridan is. Widow tells him to look it
up and he will see that it fits.
Moonstone looks down at the Invisible Woman and thinks of the irony that she is watching her unseen. She thinks of the various easy ways she could kill her. She thinks how incredible her powers are and how many things they can do, but that she can’t figure out why. Moonstone is woken from her daydreaming when Reed Richards asks her if she would like to explain why she has broken into his lab. She thinks about telling him the truth and hoping that his scientific mind might help her, but she also thinks that maybe she might just kill them both
Andrea Stermen walks into a shop in the Notting Hill district of London. The lights are dim. Andrea had been a psychiatrist for the Commission of Superhuman Activities. Now she is a best selling author who is very late delivering her second book. It was only days ago that she finally got a story worth writing. It was about a murdered Roxxon employee that had been working on something called “hard air”. The trail led her to this curio shop run by a former Roxxon employee. Suddenly Andrea notices that the cash register is floating in the air. Colin Ashford Hume walks out. He says that he ought to keep the light on all the time, but that it is much more impressive this way. He hits the lights and Andrea sees the hard air holding the cash register in the air as well as many other objects carved out of hard air. Andrea asks if they were invisible. Colin says, “sort of”. He says that they are all made out of hard air, and that you can’t see them unless the colored light hits them in a certain way until you touch them. Andrea asks him if he used to be Windshear of Alpha Flight. He says that he was, but that it was a long time ago and not for very long. Andrea introduces herself and Colin recognizes her as the author of her book. Colin says that she can’t be there to write about him since Windshear wasn’t much of a hero. She says that she wants to talk to him about the legacy of his powers and his employment at Roxxon. Colin says that he quit Roxxon to join Alpha Flight. Andrea asks him if they weren’t the ones that trained him and gave him the equipment to channel his hard air projections. He says that they did. Andrea asks if he made any hard air bullets for them. He asks what she is talking about. Andrea says that he did make hard air for them. Colin says that he did, but that it would dissipate after thirty seconds or so or after it made physical contact with anything else. Andrea asks if they could have found a way to contain it. Colin says that they had vacuum sealed containers, but that it was useless outside the containers. Andrea asks if they may have found a process to keep it in a solid state. Colin says that he supposes so, but that it wasn’t very solid back then. He says that he has improved it on his own since then. He says that any hard air that he made for them would be much weaker and dissipate on contact with anything else. Andrea asks if that would apply to a human skull.
In Latveria, a little girl is walking to the water with a bucket in her hand. She turns and runs as a woman in a Citizen V costume has washed up on the shore face down in the water.
Five hours later, Black Widow and the Thunderbolts arrive in Central America. Ogre tells them that there are residual energy discharges that are about a week old. Hawkeye asks if anyone is alive in there. Ogre says that nothing is registering, but that the castle would be shielded from such scans. Techno stammers out that his equipment is telling him that it is shielded. Hawkeye tells Black Widow that Ogre broke into NORAD to pinpoint the location. Widow asks if he is breaking the law like a good Thunderbolt should. Hawkeye says that they all stretch the law, but that he spotted an order for a satellite array. Widow asks if Hawkeye the Maggia would have access to this kind of firepower. Songbird and MACH-2 fly over the castle. Songbird says that whoever it was that they did a number on the place. MACH-2 says that his zoom sights are showing a lot of interior damage. He says that the small amount of dust indicates that it happened recently. MACH-2 says that he is picking up heat signatures inside and that someone is in there. Hawkeye tells Songbird and MACH-2 to go in from the top, and that they will go in from the ground.
Songbird and MACH-2 look through and see the way the place has been cleaned out. MACH-2 takes a blood sample and says that he will see if Ogre can tell if it was Zemo’s. Songbird asks if he would care and that as far as she is concerned that it would be good riddance to bad rubbish. Abe says that he just always thought that he might want to redeem himself the way they did. Songbird says that he really has turned into a “goody-two-shoes optimist.”
As Ogre, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Charcoal searching the floor, Widow asks Ogre why he came on this adventure since he hasn’t come on one to date. Ogre says that the other adventures were of an adventurous nature, but that this appealed to his scientific curiosity. Ogre sees all the different traces of powers. Widow says that it would be ironic if an army of superhumans attacked Zemo since he has always used superhumans. Widow notices something that leads them all downstairs.
Down in the basement lab, Charcoal says that this place was cleared out and suggests that it might have been scavengers. Hawkeye says that this was a professional clean up. Widow says that it was done days ago, and that anyone here had nothing to do with it. MACH-2 says that he is getting thermal traces from behind a wall. Widow asks if it was a secondary lab. Ogre says that he doesn’t see any fresh tracks through his fluoroscope, but doesn’t inform the others about the strange gelatinous residue footprints that he has found. Widow tells Ogre that they need him. She wonders why she distrusts him. Suddenly, the door explodes and Cyclone and a gang of protoids come out. Hawkeye recognizes the protoids as being creations of Arnim Zola. He says that he used them to attack Captain America. Ogre asks why they are still there as one of them leaps at him. Techno says that pretending to be “bumbling meat” doesn’t include getting killed. He blasts the protoid with his palm. Widow recognizes that the Bolts are following Hawkeye’s orders. She sees that instead of just cutting through the protoids, which would be easer, that they are trying not to critically injure any of the mutated people. Hawkeye realizes that this is a stall. He tells Songbird to watch for Cyclone. Cyclone suddenly blasts out holding two men in his hands.
MACH-2 flies after him. He sees a large jet, but manages to hit it with a tracer before it takes off.
Widow and the Bolts keep fighting. She wonders why she still has doubts about the Bolts. She wonders how Jolt’s death affected them. She wonders about Moonstone and why she felt someone was hiding in their base. She wonders why she doesn’t trust Ogre as the others do. Ogre steps out holding a machine. He says that enough is enough. The machine fires. The air vibrates. The waves wash over the protoids and revert them back into regular people. MACH-2 asks Ogre how he did that. Ogre says that he scanned them and just destabilized the mutation template that was used on them originally. Widow thinks to herself that it is too convenient. Songbird calls to the others and shows them an ionic generator. Ogre says that they still don’t know why. MACH-2 says that he is picking up an emergency broadcast signal. He says that he knows why they wanted ion info. MACH-2 says that right now Count Nefaria, Wonder Man, and Atlas are in Las Vegas and that they are busy right now killing the Avengers.
Count Nefaria is holding Iron Man and Warbird by their necks. Triathlon leaps over Wonder Man’s punch as Wasp stings Simon. Atlas is facing off against Goliath and Vision is approaching him from behind.
CONTINUED IN AVENGERS VOL. 3 #33
Traitor’s rating: 8 out of 10
Well I have to say that this issue is kind of a disappointment as far as it continuing from the Avengers. “Real time” is only advanced a few seconds as the fight at the end of the Avengers is still just beginning. It is kind of cool to have Black Widow and Hawkeye interacting, and I like the residue footprints in Zemo’s lab giving us hope that Zemo is alive. The “hard air” storyline gets a little lamer with the inclusion of Windshear. Bagely still rocks and draws an outstanding issue. 4.5 out of 5 for the art.
Review and pictures by The Leader